Home prices on Oahu kept up a head of steam in March, with previously owned single-family homes surging 13.9 percent to $625,000 and extending a string of year-over-year gains through five consecutive months.
The March gain, reported Monday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors, followed increases of 9.6 percent in February, 8.6 percent in January, 3.4 percent in December and 1 percent in November — suggesting that the market is sustaining some pricing momentum after a 3 percent decline for all of last year.
Last month’s rise looked particularly strong because the March 2011 median price was particularly weak. The March 2011 median sale price of $548,500 was the lowest for any month since January 2009.
Still, there’s no question that there has been a significant resurgence this year in the median price, which is a point at which half the sales were for a higher price and half for a lower price.
Last year the median failed to top $600,000 in any month except December, when it was $605,000. Since January the median has stayed above $600,000. It was $618,900 in January and $625,000 in February and March.
Fukuyuki Puckett, former principal broker for Herbert K. Horita Realty Inc., said the resurgence encouraged him to start his own firm, Summit Realty LLC, last week after 26 years in the business.
"It seems like the market is picking up," he said. "It seemed like a good time to open my own firm."
One home Puckett helped sell last month received six offers despite an unwillingness by the seller to let prospective buyers into the home before they made an offer.
The house in St. Louis Heights sold for $650,000, which was over the $630,000 listing price. The same home was listed for sale in August 2009 for $620,000 but didn’t sell despite spending 12 months on the market.
Puckett said he is seeing a greater number of homes attracting multiple offers because of healthy buyer demand and reduced inventory.
Last month there were 1,231 single-family homes on the market, down from 1,401 a year earlier.
Tighter inventory also contributed to fewer sales. There were 222 single-family home sales last month, 10.8 percent fewer than the 249 sales a year earlier. For the first three months of the year, the number of sales was down 1.3 percent because of a big gain in February that nearly offset declines in January and March.
Other factors are also inhibiting sales from rising despite low interest rates, including restrictive lending criteria and relatively high unemployment.
In Oahu’s condominium market the number of sales rose 2.1 percent in March to 338 from 331 a year earlier. But for the first three months of the year, condo sales were down 6 percent because of a big drop in February.
The median condo price slipped 1 percent in March to $311,750 from $315,000 a year earlier. That followed a 1.6 percent decrease in February and a 4.8 percent gain in January. For the first three months of the year, the median condo price was unchanged at $310,000.
